Owners of motorcycles frequently desire to customize the appearance of their vehicles or to improve the comfort provided by the seats. As a result, they often purchase custom seat structures which meet their own personal preferences. This has produced a demand for manufacturers of custom seats who in turn have been forced to increase the number of models which they manufacture and inventory.
The situation with respect to those seats providing a back rest becomes particularly acute in that the customary technique in forming the metal support structure has involved the stamping or bending of a single sheet of metal into a configuration providing both the base portion and the back rest portion. Even when substantial flanges and corrugations have been provided, there have been occasional problems with respect to maintaining rigidity and structural strength. The preferred back rest frame constructions presently employ support rods which are welded to the seat or base portion and to the back portion so as to reinforce the sheet metal structure; however, such assemblies encounter certain limitations in design.
Another problem frequently encountered in seats having back rest structures is that of providing buttons upon the rear surface of the back rest to limit relative movement of the cover and to improve the appearance thereof. Such buttons have heretofore projected substantially outwardly of the plane defined by the cover and have been susceptible to inadvertent engagement with other objects and resultant tearing from the back rest.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel motorcycle seat including a back rest in which the frame may be readily and economically fabricated and assembled to provide a rugged and rigid structure.
It is also an object to provide such a seat assembly in which the configuration and dimensioning of the components may be readily varied, thus minimizing the required inventory of parts and increasing the possible configurations resulting from several components.
Another object is to provide such a seat in which the buttons upon the rear surface of the back rest are substantially recessed so as to minimize the likelihood of inadvertent disengagement therefrom.
A further object is to provide a simple and effective method for producing such seats from easily formed and relatively inexpensive components.